Ticket prices will remain consistent with last season’s game with more than 60 per cent of the seats less than $100 each.

Keith Pelley, president of Rogers Media, and Russ Brandon, president and CEO, Buffalo Bills, (R) carry footballs after a news conference to announce a new multi-year partnership at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, January 29, 2013.

By:Bob MitchellSports Reporter, Published on Tue Jan 29 2013

The appetite for the NFL — and the Bills — remains high in Toronto, Rogers Media president Keith Pelley says, and last season’s game was a “monumental success” at the gate despite only 40,000 fans showing up.

At a news conference Tuesday, where it was announced the Bills will play one regular season game annually at the Rogers Centre for the next five seasons, Pelley said they made a “course correction” last year and reduced ticket prices to “competitive pricing in the marketplace.”

“I know how tough it is to sell tickets in this city, especially football (he was president and CEO of Toronto Argonauts, 2003-07) but I was absolutely dumbfounded with the overwhelming appetite (once ticket prices were reduced) and how many tickets were sold,” Pelley said.

Ticket prices will remain the same as last season when a decision was made in August to sell 60 per cent of the seats for less than $100 and reduce the number of giveaways. Pelley said he was stunned by the interest in last season’s game considering the Bills lack of success heading into the game.

“We sold north of 35,000, understanding that the capacity for the way we configure the stadium is just over 45,000,” Pelley said. “It’s all about us delivering world class premium content every year into our stadium. The NFL is that and the Bills are a part of it.”

Next season’s opponents for the Bills, date and time won’t be announced until April. Toronto will also host a pre-season game in 2015 under the deal.

Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed but it’s expected it will be well below the $78 million the Bills received when the original deal to play at Rogers Centre was announced in 2008, with thoughts back then that it would prove that Toronto is a worthy NFL city.

Now, bringing the Buffalo Bills to Toronto for another five years is all about providing “world class premium content” of the NFL for Rogers and its sports properties, Pelley said.

For the Bills, it’s all about expanding their brand.

According to Russ Brandon, the Bills CEO, fans heading from southern Ontario to the aging Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park have increased from 11 per cent to over 20 per cent in the past five years.

Buffalo has only won once in five years and there were far more Seattle fans in the stadium than Bills fans at this year’s game. Several Bills players questioned why they were playing in Toronto, including centre Eric Wood, who called the home game “a joke” because the majority of the fans were cheering for the Seahawks.

Despite of the less than friendly atmosphere of the Rogers Centre, Brandon said there was never any thought the agreement wouldn’t be renewed.

“Our commitment is that we have to bring a winning product to the field. That’s where we have fallen down in this series,” Brandon said. “We talked about the atmosphere last year where it wasn’t exactly conducive for us. But the reason for that was that we didn’t play good football. Plain and simple.”

Brandon said playing in Toronto is an extension of their regionalization plans to spread their brand.

“By no means are we trying to replicate the experience at Ralph Wilson Stadium here at the Rogers Centre. We have 55 years of tradition in Buffalo,” he said. “But we need to win more and be better on the field and turn people, who aren’t fans of the Bills into Bills fans. We’ve only one won game out of the last five and we need to turn the tide . . . We want to own the QEW and build our brand.”

The Bills recently extended their lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium for 10 years. Under the Bills new deal with New York State and Erie County for their Orchard Park stadium, $130 million will be spent to upgrade the aging facility that opened in 1973. An advisory group has also been established to explore the potential of building a new stadium for the franchise.

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